The Hawaii baseball team defied the humidity — and Long Beach State’s usual hunt-and-attack lineup — for Sunday’s 4-2 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.
A matinee crowd of 1,455 saw the Rainbow Warriors produce another strong pitching performance to complete the sweep of the three-game series. The ’Bows improved to 19-13 overall and 9-6 in the Big West. The Dirtbags fell to 22-15 and 9-9.
“You’ve got to credit them,” LBSU coach Eric Valenzuela said. “They did a great job all weekend. They outplayed us, outcoached us. We didn’t have a good weekend. … They threw good pitchers all weekend long. They did a good job with pitch calling. They did a good job with competing. We didn’t make adjustments when we needed to, and that’s what happens.”
The Dirtbags batted .167 (15-for-90) and scored six runs during the series. Left fielder Rocco Peppi was hitless in eight at bats. First baseman Jonathan Long was 1-for-11. The Dirtbags went 19 consecutive innings without a run until scoring twice in the ninth inning against reliever Alex Giroux. Connor Harrison got the final two outs for his sixth save. In his fifth start, left-handed freshman Harrison Bodendorf was credited with the victory despite being pulled with one out in the fifth.
“I’m a competitor and want to be out there as much as I can,” Bodendorf said of exiting after throwing his 58th pitch. “But at the end of the day, I do see why (head coach Rich Hill) did it.”
On Friday, Bodendorf threw 38 pitches in the final three innings of relief. On Saturday, he warmed up but was not summoned as Randy Abshier threw a shutout.
“We wanted to keep him on a short leash today,” Hill said. “Two times through (the lineup) was all we could really ask of him. He’s got a great career. He could be a future major leaguer. The last thing we want to do is burn this kid out.”
Relying on Friday’s trend-detecting experience against the Dirtbags, Bodendorf mixed a fastball and changeup to induce six groundouts and six flyouts. He allowed three hits and walked two. “I got behind in counts, (but) I didn’t let it affect me,” Bodendorf said. “I still attacked and made them make the mistakes.”
Designated hitter Jacob Igawa and second baseman Stone Miyao drove in all four UH runs.
Igawa’s run-scoring single made it 1-0 in the first inning.
In the fourth, left-handed Miyao put down a squeeze as Jared Quandt raced home from third. Miyao atoned for Saturday’s unsuccessful squeeze.
“When Coach (Rich Hill) gave (the bunt sign) to me, I had to make sure I got it down,” Miyao said. “I’m glad the run scored.”
In the sixth, Miyao pulled a drive into the right-center gap to plate two more runs. “It felt good to score the runs, back up my pitcher, give him some space on the mound,” Miyao said.
Hill said the ’Bows stranded too many runners in scoring position. “We’re a work in progress when it comes to that,” Hill said. “We’re going to keep cracking rocks. But championship teams have guys who pick each other up. Jacob Igawa picked up guys who didn’t really execute. Stone Miyao picked up our guys that maybe didn’t execute.”
Igawa said: “We didn’t have an explosion like the other weeks. But I think we had some good at bats as a team. Some things we need to work on, too. We did just enough.”
The ’Bows completed the nine-game homestand, and will depart this morning for a two-week, eight-game trip to Southern California. The ’Bows play California Baptist Tuesday in a nonconference game.
